-An AMAZING response by author Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Little, Brown 2009) to the #YASaves debate raging this past week. Don’t know what the debate is about? Head here, and read the article that sparked it all.

-Want to get your novel critiqued AND help a good cause? Writer Kat Brauer offers a critique of 250 words for every $1 you donate to her charity: water fundraiser! Plus, she has a HUGE line-up of agents and authors offering critiques! Be sure to stop buy–it’s running until June 30th!

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Quotes:

“So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavour, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.”

– John Keating, Dead Poet’s Society

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Happy Saturday! Share with us any cool links you might have, or let us know what you’ve been up to! 😀

– PURE. BRILLIANCE. This is showing, not telling, at its best. Author Chuck Palahniuk (who is awesome, btw) challenges all writers to stop using “thought” verbs; instead, writers should find other ways of getting across what a character thinks by showing them what that character is seeing. Seriously, read this; it just makes you itch to get back to writing!

– This is a test you’ll actually WANT to take! Let us know in the comments whether you guessed right or not (male writer? female?) – some of us LTWF girls were pretty bang-on, and some of us not so much.

– Let’s face it – we all wear clothes (or at least, I hope you all do!) – so what better shirt to wear for writers and book lovers than a bookish t-shirt? This is the place to get the shirts that let you wear your love of literature! (Some of us LTWF girls have bought shirts from here!)

– I love inkygirl (aka Debbie Ridpath Ohi) – and I love her cartoon strips (this one in particular made me laugh). Here she talks about her resolution to not go online for a set period of time everyday – and why the mornings just don’t work for her.

-Want to get your novel critiqued AND help a good cause? Writer Kat Brauer offers a critique of 250 words for every $1 you donate to her charity: water fundraiser! Plus, she has a HUGE line-up of agents and authors offering critiques! Be sure to stop buy–it’s running until June 30th!

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Quotes:

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“I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?”

— J.R.R. Tolkien

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Happy Saturday everyone! Let us know what you thought of the articles this week (or if you have any you want to share). Or just let us know what’s up!

-Want to get your novel critiqued AND help a good cause? Writer Kat Brauer offers a critique of 250 words for every $1 you donate to her charity: water fundraiser! Plus, she has a HUGE line-up of agents and authors offering critiques! Be sure to stop buy–it’s running until June 30th!

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Quotes:

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“So I would encourage you all to read, read, read. Just keep reading. And writing is another skill. It’s practice. It’s practice. The more you write, the better you get. Drafts–our kids are learning the first draft means nothing. You’re going to do seven, 10 drafts. That’s writing, it’s not failure, it’s not the teacher not liking you because it’s all marked up in red. When you get to be a good writer, you mark your own stuff in red, and you rewrite, and you rewrite, and you rewrite. That’s what writing is.”

– You might’ve heard about the uproar following New York Times’Gina Bellefante’s review of GAME OF THRONES, the HBO adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy series, A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. She claims Fantasy belongs to men – but this article looks at why fantasy appeals to so many women.

– Want to find authors who are similar to some of your fave writers? Well, Literature Map has you covered! This awesome site lets you search an author, and will show you similar authors – and differentiates very similar authors to somewhat similar ones. Note: This may cause you to spend more money on books. You have been warned 🙂

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Quotes:

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”

-Want to get your novel critiqued AND help a good cause? Writer Kat Brauer offers a critique of 250 words for every $1 you donate to her charity: water fundraiser! Plus, she has a HUGE line-up of agents and authors offering critiques! Be sure to stop buy–it’s running for the next 2 months!

-Author Kate Hart offers more pretty graphs that break apart YA deals by genre, by debut and quantity, and (in this post) by single vs. multi-book deals. Fascinating information–especially if you write YA!

-Our very own Sarah J. Maas shares her reaction to the offensive New York Times review of HBO’s Game of Thrones. It’s definitely worth a read–though watch out, tempers are flaring everywhere (ours too!).

-Want to get your novel critiqued AND help a good cause? Writer Kat Brauer offers a critique of 250 words for every $1 you donate to her charity: water fundraiser! Plus, she has a HUGE line-up of agents and authors offering critiques–including our very own LTWF’s Sarah J. Maas, Kat Zhang, Vahini Naidoo, and Susan Dennard! Be sure to stop buy–it’s running for the next 3 months!

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Billy's Writing Space. She likes to have as few distractions as possible because, ya know, theyre distracting.

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Quotes:

“Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.“

– Mark Twain

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“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”